Bulgaria captain Vladimir Nikolov: "I’m very happy we won because it is the first victory against Poland in four years. I’m so happy we won such an important match and I believe we were well prepared technically. We had good results because we gave it our very best."

Poland captain Pawel Zagumny: "After three good games in Trieste, we’re not sure why we played in this way. Bulgaria played very well in serving and attack and we didn’t do as well as we have in the past. It was not because we were over-confident. You cannot be too confident when playing against Brazil and Bulgaria. Maybe we were just too nervous."

Bulgaria head coach Silvano Prandi: "It was a dream to win this match. During the first round we lost two matches and I could feel the negative thoughts coming from Eastern Europe towards us. We were concentrated so we are very satisfied with the results. We have a good, quality team. In the first round the key match was against France. We started at 9pm and finished at almost midnight. We lost that match so the moral was low the next day and I told my guys that we didn’t play badly, we just lost a match. So I think we have the ability to do well against every team."

Poland head coach Daniel Castellani: "Congratulations to the Bulgarian players. They were perfect in serving, receiving and in attack. Our team was a different team today than in the last two matches. Our key points were lost so this could be a reason for our defeat."